Sprinkles Cupcakes are handed out from a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van that has been converted into a mobile food vender vehicle, Nov. 17, 2010, in Los Angeles. GETTY IMAGES FILE PHOTO

Have you made your DineLA reservations yet? With restaurants in dozens of Los Angeles neighborhoods participating, the event’s culinary offerings are vast and diverse as the city itself.

Los Angeles County boasts over 35,000 food facilities. California and by extension, Los Angeles County – the government entity responsible for enforcing health regulations – has some of the strictest food safety regulations in the country. However, it’s not the food safety regulations that currently disrupt a thriving sidewalk vending culture in the City of Los Angeles, it’s a citywide ban based on alleviating sidewalk congestion.

The City of Los Angeles currently has an inconsistent policy towards street food vending. On the one hand, Los Angeles has recognized the importance of street vending through food trucks. The City boasts some of the most favorable vending regulations in the Country. These regulations have lead to a thriving food truck scene, which has improved LA’s culinary landscape immeasurably. However, street food served from a sidewalk cart has been banned completely. Presumably this is an effort to reduce sidewalk congestion since the City of Los Angeles is not responsible for health code enforcement. But most Los Angelenos will tell you that sidewalks are not the congestion areas they’re most concerned about.

By prohibiting the sale of food and beverages on sidewalks, LA’s laws have lagged behind consumer demand for years. When governments ban popular goods and services, black markets arise with no regulatory protections. Thousands work in the underground vending marketplaces and each year hundreds are ticketed and arrested. Still, hardworking vendors, many of them first- or second- generation immigrants, accept the risks as they struggle to support themselves and their families in a tough economy. The world of food entrepreneurship is filled with meaningful stories of perseverance, courage, pursuit of the American Dream – and great street food.

Realizing the value of documenting and sharing such experiences, award-winning filmmakers Laura Waters Hinson and Kasey Kirby spent the past four years filming “Dog Days.” The documentary, which has its West Coast premiere at the upcoming Santa Barbara International Film Festival on February 4th, explores the complex underworld of hotdog vending in Washington, D.C.

For the past 15 years, the D.C. City Council has imposed a moratorium on new hotdog vending licenses, which has shrunk a once thriving industry from more than 1,000 vendors in the 1990s down to a mere 300 today. As Hinson explains, not only are there fewer vendors than ever before, but the city’s regulatory restrictions have also stifled variety at the distribution warehouses where cart owners buy their food. Thus, nearly every stand in the city sells the exact same types of hotdogs, chips, candy and soda. This has turned a once thriving D.C. street food scene into a “collection of homogeneous carnival food offerings.”

Produced with the help of the nonprofit Moving Picture Institute, “Dog Days” follows a first-time entrepreneur named Coite. After losing his job in the recession, he joins forces with his eccentric aunt and an immigrant hot dog vendor to try and change the face of street food in the District. The main vendor in the story, Siyone, a former refugee from East Africa and single mother of four, has spent more than two decades selling hotdogs on the streets of D.C.

Critics argue that street food can be dangerous or that street vendors “unfairly compete” with brick-and-mortar restaurants, but thousands of customers feel differently. They see delicious food at bargain prices, and happily purchase meals from sidewalk carts. After all, if a cart sells unsafe food, it won’t stay in business for long -- negative reviews travel quickly through word of mouth and over social media. That is not to say that city or state governments cannot or should not play a role in regulating the sidewalk carts, but carts should at least have the opportunity to compete legally.

Last fall, Los Angeles City Council requested a report into legal, regulated sidewalk street food. It remains to be seen whether the study will bring positive changes to the vending community. Until then, it’s important to remember that a true love of food means more than trying a couple of Restaurant Week hotspots. If consumers vigilantly stand up for food freedom and the rights of food entrepreneurs in their communities, diversity, choice and great food can thrive.

Matt Geller is the CEO of the Southern California Mobile Food Vendors’ Association, a food truck advocacy organization that operates out of Los Angeles. Lana Harfoush is the Director of Communications and Marketing at the Moving Picture Institute, a nonprofit that promotes freedom through film.

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